TEACHER'S GUIDE TO
History and Folklife of the Kentucky Frontier
Lesson 4: Letter from emigrant Daphne Tiller to her mother (1794)
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Little is known about Daphne and her husband Sam Tiller. Their names do not appear on the 1790 or 1800 Kentucky census nor in any other Warren County court records. Thousands of the earliest emigrants to the West have disappeared from the historical record. Daphne's letter to her mother was found pasted to the lid of a trunk and first appeared in print in a 1902 publication by the girls of Potter College. The fate of the original letter is unknown. The letter discusses her feelings of loneliness, an encounter with Indians, and the food they have for the year. The McFadden to whom Daphne refers was probably Andrew McFadden, whose home stood on a bluff on the north side of the Barren, about where Interstate 65 now crosses the river. Unlike the Tillers, McFadden enjoyed the company of a few neighbors and an occasional guest. Travelers along the Cumberland Trace on their way to and from Nashville often crossed the river at the nearby ford and stopped at "McFadden's Station" for the evening. McFadden came to south central Kentucky in the mid-1780s and built his home on the Barren River sometime before 1790. He lived in Warren County until about 1802, when he moved to Henderson County for short time and then to Knox County, Indiana. |
Casper River, March 2, 1794. Dear Mammy: King Fraser came by our claim yesterday and staid all night with us. He brought us beet and onion seed and gave me a needle and some flaxseed. We came here because Tolliver hired Sam to live on the Ball land and hold it. Once of our horses died at Cumberland Gap and Sam sold the other to a man for some ammunition and some food and we made a boat and came down the river to the fort and then walked here and put up a log cabin. We rowed down the river in the night and laid by in the day, and we walked three or four nights pretty near all night. We hear Mr. Tolliver is going to send some more people out here and I wish he would as it is lonesome when Sam is gone. We have about tow or three acres cleared and planted in corn and pumpkins and we have enough venison dried to do a year. My yellow linsey dress is nearly worn out, but cottonade is not. Sam made me a buckskin apron. There are folks about twelve miles from us on Big Barren river, and a Mr. McFadden, who was hunting stray horses, he said, staid all night with us about a month ago. He begged us to come up where he lived and said it was not safe for us here, but we do not feel afraid if it was not so lonesome. King said he was going to meet some surveyors and hunt for some military land. Sometimes I cry about losing Bounce, but Sam says he knows the Ingin that stuck his toma- hawk in Bounce won't kill another dog, for he put a bullet hole in his hide. They were here about one whole day whooping and hollering about, but they were great cowards. Sam says that if Tolliver comes out here next year we will go back on a visit. Tell everybody howdy, and if you see any one coming here write to me and send me some things. I can get them from McFadden's. Your affectionate daughter, DAPHNE
After reading Daphne's letter
1. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of being as isolated as Daphne and Sam were.
2. What foods did Daphne and Sam have available for the coming year? Do these foods provide a well-balanced, nutritious diet? What edible foods might they find in the wild that could round out their diet?3. What role did a domestic animal like Bounce play on the frontier? How was it different from the role of a pet in the city? What were the advantages and disadvantages of having a dog or cat?4. What does this letter tell you about the conflict between white emigrants and Indians? How do they seem to feel about each other?
This lesson comes from A Teacher's Guide to Pioneer Life in South Central Kentucky, by Nancy Disher Baird and Carol Crowe-Carraco.